A new initiative called MAS in Schools—spearheaded by pro-Hamas activists Abdullah Akl and Mohammad Badawy—aims to establish Muslim student chapters in 50 New York City public high schools. The MAS in Schools program will partner “for the first time ever” with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a radical organization that recently called for “death to all collaborators” of Israel.
Akl, advocacy director of the Muslim American Society (MAS) Youth Center in Brooklyn, has led chants urging Hamas to “strike Tel Aviv” and vowed that “we will show up stronger than we did the first October 7th.” Badawy, the MAS Youth Center’s resident scholar, prayed for the “destruction of the illegitimate Zionist occupiers and all of their supporters” at an April event. Both men have deep ties to anti-Israel activism, including collaboration with Within Our Lifetime, a group denounced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for “atrocious anti-Semitism.”
Jewish leaders warn that the MAS in Schools initiative could worsen existing antisemitism in public schools. “It’s very troubling,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, noting the group’s “track record of essentially being pro-Hamas.” He added that “this is a concerning level of organizing, down from universities right into high schools.”
The MAS Youth Center has already begun outreach, teaching students at Lafayette and Fort Hamilton high schools “how to organize” and “how to advocate.” Flyers for MAS-backed walkouts on October 7 displayed the slogan “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.”
